How doctors can monitor fitness from afar

Whether they need to simply shed a few pounds, or are recovering
from a near-miss heart attack, many people are under their doctor's
strict orders to get more exercise. Physical activity prescriptions have become a de
facto medical intervention, a structured counterattack to the
sedentary American lifestyle and fat-fueled diet.

And now, doctors may be able to keep tabs on how well their patients
have heeded their advice on exercise, even when they're miles
apart, thanks to a new remote monitoring device from Alive
Technologies.

There's no clearer example of the divide between our intentions
and actions than the case of a person starting a mandated exercise
routine. Today's scheduled gym time easily becomes tomorrow's
prolonged procrastination when our minds unwisely rationalise that
our daily choices have little effect on our long-term health.

For dire conditions, like those involving the heart where the
exercise prescription is crucial, hospitals and health clinics may
provide cardiac rehabilitation -- an outpatient service much like
physical therapy, where physicians or licensed exercise
physiologists design a custom activity program and monitor the
patient's progress.

But people much prefer to get their exercise at home. After all,
who wants to have to drive to the clinic just to have someone watch
you march along on the treadmill?

Doctors are sometime reluctant to allow patients to exercise on
their own, in case something goes awry, like a potentially
life-threatening irregular
heartbeat. Alive Technologies, a company based in Queensland,
Australia, is addressing these concerns with their new Heart and Activity
Monitor, which may jointly satisfy the rigor that physicians
need, as well as the freedom that patients desire.

In a paper published this month in the journal PLoS ONE, the company tapped researchers from the Institute of Health and
Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland University of
Technology to devise a proof-of-concept study that showed medical
professionals can accurately monitor a person's prescribed exercise
routine even when the patient was not in the clinic.